Page 2

TWO

PARKER

“ F ucking Reeves?—”

“Did you see her? She looked right at me. She looked right at me and waved?—”

“I’m not getting goddamn friend-zoned. It’s official, Scout’s single?—”

“Millie definitely waved. I’m telling you, I’m finally in. I’m getting closer?—”

“I’m asking her on a date. The next time I see her, I’m asking?—”

“I said I’d catch her a ball, and I did. Who needs more than that?”

“Did you see where she was sitting? I couldn’t find her. She’ll have seen my homer, right? D’you think she saw it?”

“I’ll get that ball back, then I can give it to her as a gift. I’ll write something cute on it. Girls love that shit?—”

“I haven’t hit like that since the middle of last season, and I go and get a home run on my first pitch during Opening Day. It’s a sign, I know it?—”

“I’ll ask her on a date?—”

I stopped dead.

Tanner stopped next to me.

The pair of us were standing in the middle of the corridor heading to the locker rooms, which wasn’t the best place to stop after a game, seeing as it became an interstate of players, staff, coaches, and sports journalists all rushing around, dodging each other to avoid a collision.

I pulled him to the side before we got taken out by someone not looking where they were going.

It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened.

“What?”

“What?”

“What are you talking about?” we asked in sync, both looking more confused than we probably should.

I held my hand up before he started talking again. “What were you talking about just then? Who are you asking out?”

“Millie. Who are you talking about?”

“Scout.” I sighed.

Scout was all I ever seemed to talk about right now.

Think about.

Dream about.

I was almost at the point where I was boring myself, let alone everyone else.

Nah, who was I kidding? I’d never get bored of talking about Scout Davison.

Tanner held his mouth in a straight line and gave one single understanding nod. “Okay, bud. You go first.”

Dropping a hand on his shoulder, I squeezed in gratitude.

He knew the seriousness of this situation, because he was living it, too, and pining over Millie Robinson, who wanted nothing to do with him. But at least he didn’t have to see her every day.

Now the season had started, I’d be seeing Scout every damn day, and I had no plans to go through the same torture of last year, when I took too long to ask her out.

I was not about to sit on my ass again while another dude swooped in and snatched her up.

I was the only one who’d be doing any swooping.

Me, Parker King, catcher for the New York Lions.

Swooper.

“Thanks, man.”

My cheeks puffed, letting out the deep breath I’d taken, and my mind homed in on Scout again. I don’t know what it was about this girl that caused me to forget how to act like a normal human being.

It was miles away from the professional baseball player who could get any woman he wanted. The one who’d never in his entire life had a problem asking a girl out.

But Scout made me forget myself.

“Okay.” I repeated, “I don’t want to get friend-zoned or whatever the fuck Reeves called it.”

Fucking Reeves.

The spiral I’d stopped myself from spinning into pregame, was threatening to take hold again.

This was all Jupiter Reeves’s fault.

I’d been quietly having a conversation with my boys about how to ask out Scout now she was single, when Jupiter Reeves interrupted with his sole contribution by telling me not to get friend-zoned.

That was it. Don’t get friend-zoned.

I was about to ask him what he meant when Coach called a meeting, and I hadn’t seen Jupiter since, unless you counted the dugout. And even I wasn’t stupid enough to talk to Jupiter Reeves about a girl during Opening Day game.

That was the sort of shit Ace pulled.

“You think I should go and find Reeves and ask him what he meant?”

Find Reeves, or find Scout. It was debatable which was more nerve wracking.

I waited for Tanner to answer. Instead, he pulled his cell out and began scrolling.

I was still waiting thirty seconds later. Did he not realize I wasn’t asking a rhetorical question and did actually require a response?

“Duuude?” I tried again, making no attempt to keep the whine from my tone. “What should I do?”

I was about to slap the cell from his hands when he finally looked up, and a wide smile split his face.

“What?”

“I don’t think you’re in the friend zone yet. You’re definitely still in the strike zone.” He snickered, thrusting his cell in my direction. “She saw your home run.”

The screen was open on the New York Lions TikTok channel—which Scout was in charge of. I found myself staring at a looped close-up video of me smashing the ball through the air, far into left field and the stands, jogging past the bases and off the field.

The last five seconds was in slow motion, my mouth curved up on the right and looking every ounce as smug as I felt when I saluted the fans before ducking back into the dugout.

The smugness returned tenfold as I read the text over the top.

king of the field

“Check out the one underneath.”

I scrolled down to find a video of Ace and me warming up.

My smile grew.

It wasn’t us just throwing and catching or going over strategy. No sir. Those groin stretches the PTs had us doing on the daily were paying off in more ways than one, and I didn’t mind in the slightest that a close-up of my ass was there for the world to see.

Not if Scout had videoed it.

The social media team usually had cameras set up along the field to capture each game, and they always stayed close by. But today I hadn’t been aware of seeing any of them. Or rather, I hadn’t spotted Scout.

Normally I knew when she was near, as though I had a sixth sense for anything concerning Scout Davison, but today I’d been too focused on making sure Ace had a better Opening Day than last year.

And I had. We’d annihilated the Braves.

But if these two videos were anything to go by, Scout’s attention had been on more than the game. Especially as—from scrolling through the rest of today’s posts—no one else had two made of them.

I glanced back up at Tanner, my chest puffing. “Do you think she’s into me? That’s what this means, right?”

Whatever Tanner was about to say died on his lips and his eyes widened at something over my shoulder. There was absolutely no way he could have been any more obvious when I turned around to see what he was looking at and found Scout walking toward us, a laptop clasped to her chest as she typed away on her phone.

Fuck. She looked so pretty.

I hadn’t seen her properly since last season. I wasn’t counting the ice-skating fiasco from Christmas when she’d been with Rangers Douche, and I also wasn’t counting the week she flew down to Spring Training, when I mostly ran in the opposite direction whenever she was near, just in case she was still with Rangers Douche.

But I wasn’t running now.

Even from thirty yards out, the swell of her tits bouncing in the white tank top she was wearing woke my dick up. The Lions shirt thrown over the top did nothing to help, either, because all I could think about was her wearing my Lions shirt.

She’d cut her hair since last month. Instead of the long blonde waves I always dreamed about wrapping around my fist, blunt ends stopped just above her collarbone and brushed along the sliver of golden skin peeking out between the material. No matter, I’d make it work. And I don’t know how, but it made her cheeks seem even rounder and her lips more kissable than ever.

And they’d always looked really fucking kissable.

“Hey, Scout,” crowed Tanner in a way that made my jaw clench, especially when his hand shot in the air with an overexaggerated, mom-style wave. I’d have kicked him if it wouldn’t have been obvious.

Her head shot up, her face immediately flushing pink as her gaze darted between us. “Oh hey, guys.”

Her eyes stilled on me. I’d never seen a shade of blue like it, as though an artist had mixed the color of my favorite pair of Levi’s with the glow in the sky right before nighttime arrived, especially when they twinkled.

“Hey, Parker.”

I held my breath as she passed us, just in case she decided to stop and talk, but instead she walked on by without another glance, without me waiting to say hey back to her.

Shit .

Once more, Scout Davison made me forget myself.

I’d never felt more like I was back in high school than when Scout was around. Except in high school, I never became tongue-tied. I’d owned the hallways.

My shoulders were on the verge of slumping when Tanner nudged me.

“She’s into you,” he said as we watched her walk off toward the elevator banks.

“You think?”

“No doubt. Of course she is. You know my motto—you’re Parker Fucking King. Get it over with before the team meeting. Ask her out.”

I rubbed my hands together. Okay. Yeah. I was Parker Fucking King. I could do this.

I’d already waited too long to talk to her, and over my dead body was Jupiter Reeves going to be proved right. I would not be friend-zoned.

If I ran, I could hit the elevator button for her before she reached it.

“We’re talking about Millie when we get home,” I called behind me before I took off down the hallway.

Here goes nothing.

“Scout,” I called as loudly as I could, but not so loud that it made every single other person in the corridor turn around. I should have picked a better time. “Scout, wait up.”

She stopped and turned, blonde hair flicking in her face.

Pushing it out of her eyes, she glanced up from her phone, wearing a confused expression. “Hey, Parker, what’s up?”

I slowed. What is up? I hadn’t thought this far ahead. Not enough to come up with a valid answer to one simple question without me looking like a total dick, at least.

Instead, I came to a stop in front of her, curling my hand around the peak of my cap before shoving both hands deep into my pockets.

“Um, hey.”

“Hey,” she replied. Her head tilted as she waited for me to fill the silence and explain why I’d just run down the corridor after her. “Well done on your home run, by the way.”

“Thanks.” I grinned, only my grin didn’t drop. It froze while I was still trying to remember my words.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yes. Just wanted to say hey. And—you know—great work on the TikTok today.” The TikTok. Fuck my life. “I mean TikTok. Just TikTok. Not the , obviously?—”

Parker, shut up.

Scout’s brows dropped a fraction and her left eye twitched as she kind of narrowed it at me. Yeah, I definitely forgot to take my cool pills this morning.

If I could read her mind, it would be saying something like What the fuck is happening right now?

“Thanks.” She laughed. “I can’t take the credit today. We have a couple of interns on the social team for the next few months. They were capturing all the content and?—”

“Wait, that wasn’t you? You didn’t take the videos of me…um…I mean us. Of the game? The warm-ups?”

She shook her head slowly. “No, Cyrus and Joey were catching all the pregame content, then went out to the boardwalk.”

Cyrus and Joey.

I hoped it wasn’t obvious my entire chest shriveled like a popped balloon. I glanced down at the floor, half expecting to see a piece of wrinkled rubber lying there. Everything Tanner said about Scout having the hots for me was all based on videos two dudes had made.

Two interns staring at my ass.

And I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

Maybe I had really blown it by taking too long to ask her on a date last year.

“Oh.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s good. I just wondered is all. Thank them for including my home run.”

“Sure. I will. No problem.”

I rocked back on my heel. “So?—”

“So—”

Think, Parker. Think.

“Let me know if you need any more content. Always happy to help out you guys on social,” I added weakly, trying to avoid eye contact with a couple of the guys heading to the locker room.

I didn’t need an audience for this, nor did I want to make it obvious something was happening that I’d then hear about later.

“Count on it. There’s a lot planned,” she replied with a broad smile that lifted my chest a little.

I was saved from another awkward silence by a movement to my left. On second thoughts I’d prefer the silence. Coach was jogging down the stairs next to the elevators, and the moment he spotted Scout and me, his step paused.

Please keep walking, please keep walking.

But luck was not on my side, and instead of walking by, he marched straight toward us.

Not only was I totally choking asking Scout on a date, now my dad may as well be peering over my shoulder.

“King. Don’t forget to sign your form,” he barked, before I could say a word.

A deep frown crossed my face, because first off, that made no sense and…nope, just the no sense thing.

“Eh, Coach? What form?”

His eyes flicked to Scout and back to me, along with a sly grin. A grin I didn’t like the look of. Not one bit.

“The dating form.” His finger pointed between Scout and me. “You two will need to sign it. If that’s what’s going on here.”

The air caught in my lungs so quickly that no amount of cool I might have had saved me from choking on it. There was no rescue. Just straight, red-faced choking.

Scout’s eyes were widening to the point they were in danger of falling out, and her cheeks weren’t just pink, they were bright red.

“Damn, Coach. What?” I managed to splutter.

“Don’t you read your emails?”

Not if I could help it. “Um, yeah. ’Course I do.”

“Well then, you should know what I’m talking about.”

I forced myself to look at Scout, in case she knew what he was talking about, except she was now looking anywhere else but me. The signs by the elevators were not that interesting.

Once again, I asked myself how was I this major league ball player with money, above average looks (according to several sexiest men polls), and an ass to die for, yet I couldn’t ask out the one girl I’d been crushing on for over a year?

I waited for Coach to leave and continue his journey, perhaps to terrorize a few of the rookies or go and ruin someone else’s life, though no evidence pointed to that happening. I stayed silent. In the end, Scout jerked her head behind her to the stairs, clearly providing a quicker escape option than the elevators, which had never been called.

“I need to…um…running late. See you around.”

She took off before I could say another word.

I was yet to blink, even when I turned to Coach, who was still there looking like he hadn’t just stirred a big pile of shit in my life. Come to think of it, I wasn’t even entirely sure what he had done, but I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

“Coach?”

“Check your emails, King. Then get your ass in the auditorium for a debrief,” he replied, walking off before I could stop him.

I pulled my phone out and opened my inbox. Nothing was there that I could tell. Even among the fifty-one thousand unread ones.

Scroll.

Spam.

Scroll.

Casa Grayskull admin.

Scroll. Scroll.

Nothing except sports news. An email from my stylist for game day fits—save that baby for later. Scrolling. Scrolling. Scrolling.

Then I spotted it. Yesterday.

FROM: NEW YORK LIONS HR

SUBJECT: INTERCOMPANY RELATIONSHIP DISCLOSURES

To all players,

Following recent behaviors, the New York Lions senior management has decided that, with immediate effect, any player wishing to enter into a personal relationship of a sexual nature with another New York Lions employee is required to sign a confidential relationship disclosure.

Anyone caught failing to uphold this agreement will face disciplinary action. If you are already in a relationship with an employee, respond to this email.

Please note: signature from both parties is required.

Any questions should be directed to the New York Lions HR dept.

Sincerely,

HR

F uck my life.